January 27 - Happy 127 film day

Shanghai's GP3 127 film - the only currently available fresh 127 film

Well, my buddies at the Film Photography Project have announced today as 127 film day, and let's take a little look at the film that was once called "vest pocket" film by Eastman Kodak. 127 film was introduced in 1912 by Kodak for its Vest Pocket cameras.  The reason it is called 127 is because it was the 27th roll film introduced by Kodak since the 101 size in 1895.  (Which means that 120 was the 20th size that Kodak introduced, - sorry to deflate you, 120mm idiots). The Kodak Vest Pocket camera was truly an innovation at a time when "real photographers" were still using glass plates.  The camera collapsed into a thick object the size of a tobacco tin, and did fit into a vest pocket, back when men wore vests.  The VP Kodak was possibly one of the few cameras used by soldiers in WWI to document what it was like in the trenches.  Collapsed, it could be easily hidden, and quickly brought out to use.  The "trellis struts" held the front standard away from the back. The lens was a Meniscus Achromatic with a Kodak ball-bearing shutter. This YouTube video on the VP in WWI is definitely worth a watch.

The OG VP Kodak.  1912-1914. Image courtesy of SBA73 on Flickr

From the start, 127 was the "miniature" film, as other cameras at the time used much larger formats. Back in the heyday of folding cameras and consumer-oriented box cameras, you typically received contact prints from the drugstore where you dropped off your film. For 120, 116, and larger formats, the contact prints were of a decent size, but with 127, the biggest size was 1-5/8 x 2-1/2 inches - what we might call wallet-size photos today. 127 film is a roll-film, and the full frame size is 4 x 6.5 cm. However, you can also have 4x4 cm  and 3x4 cm negatives (half-frame), resulting in 16 exposures.  A fairly economical choice for the casual snap-shooter. 

From the Bell & Howell Electric Eye (2004)

from the Kodak Brownie Reflex (2011)

from a Beacon 127 camera (2004)

 Kodak went on to produce a lot of 127 film cameras, from the Vest Pocket (1912) and the No. 0 Brownie box camera (1914) to the last one, the Brownie Fiesta in 1966.   To Kodak, the 127 film format was for every-day consumers, and the cameras they produced for it reflected that.  However, with the introduction of the 126 Instamatic in 1963, the days for 127 were numbered.  Mom and Pop no longer had to thread the film from the spools. Just drop in the cartridge and you were ready for at least two holidays.  That would have been 126 day - yesterday!

Kodak's Bakelite wonders - Baby Brownie Special and Baby Brownie

Imperial Mark 27

The Fed-Flash

One of the varieties of the Clix-O-Flex

About as cheap as you can get - a Deluxe Cinex

There are a plethora of cheap US-made 127 cameras available - and most of them are simply nothing more than toy cameras, such as those sold under the Falcon name by the Utility Mfg. Co. in New York. Metropolitan Industries in Chicago sold a slew of 127 cameras, with the Clix-O-Flex being the most well-known. Spartus in Chicago sold many inexpensive 120 and 35mm cameras, but also a couple for 127- the Cinex and the Spartus folding camera - which greatly resembles the original VP Kodak. Almost all these cheaper cameras appeared in the late 1930s until WWII.  

A shot from my Clix-O-Flex, 2007

There are also lots of European cameras that were made for 127 film. Some from Ferrania, and the first Exaktas from Ihagee before the Kine Exakta I. The Bilora Bella 44 was sold in several versions..  The Purma Special (1937-51) from Great Britain might be one of the most elegant and yet strange designs for a camera.  Ruberg and Renner in Hagen, Germany, manufactured a bunch of 127 cameras in the 1930s. Zeiss Ikon sold the Baby-Box cameras and the Kolibri in the 1930s. Nagel's Pupille,  Ranca, and Vollenda cameras are well-made 127 models, sold before Kodak acquired Nagel in the late 1930s.  

Ferrania Rondine - cute, eh?

Kodak's Vollenda, made by Nagel A.G.

Balda's Micky-Rollbox Model II

Looks much better than it is! The Light Super.

Meanwhile other companies did take the 127 format seriously in the 1950s, and made cameras to take advantage of the smaller film size.  The Baby Rolleiflex, the Yashica-44, and the Sawyers Mark IV are all 4x4 cm Twin Lens Reflex cameras with good optics, a range of shutter speeds, and of course, focus via the TLR method.  I'd say that the 127 TLRs are the most desirable cameras to use for that film size.  So, if you are interested in trying 127 film, look for one of those TLRs.  I'd shy away from any of the cheapest toy cameras to shoot 127, since the film is certainly expensive due to its limited availability, and stick to b&w, so you can home develop.  

The Yashica-44 is a nice little TLR

Kodak stopped producing 127 film in 1995.  It had a long run for a consumer format. Longer than 126, 110, 828, and APS!  

So, happy 127 day!